Personally, I don't think the shipping charges are out of line . It's all a matter of time. They mfg. their product right here in the good ole USA and it is a labor intensive operation...especially for a small shop. I had a small shop for 28 years and I can vouch for the ineptitude of the USPS. The time spent in tracking packages is time spent away from mfg. the product. In today's economy this time away from mfg. has to be accounted for if one is to survive in today's economy.

Elite puts out a good product as the forum posts will attest to and they seem to run a tight ship and have their costs in check.

Grantness wrote:BTW this is the RELOADING forum. Yes, its a shellplate for trimming... but its an EA question. So it belongs in the EA forum. :cya:

You are right Grantness. I apologize.

panzermk2 wrote:

But you would sound like a jerk when you did not get the plate you ordered. We lost almost 7 grand in lost shipments due to the USPS.

They are the most utterly incompetent useless <profanity> in existence.

Now if we were Amazon we could afford those looses, wait Amazon does not ship USPS wonder why?

We ship FEDEX ground since we got sick of shipping three "silly" shell plates to the same person just to get one to go through and losing 100 bucks in the process.

Don't like our shipping practices? Well to bad. Lisa and I got sick of the dozens of phone class from people accusing us of ripping them off and not shipping their product to them.

Do a search the problem with the USPS goes back many years and is well documented here on the forum.

Okay, thats fair. I can see why you wouldnt want to ship by USPS if that has been a consistent problem.

Im just bummed because I have been getting raked over the coals lately with shipping costs and that one made my eyes bug out. Just a short back story- Cheaper Than Dirt, is not that cheap once you factor in their shipping. I had something that I had been looking for that I went to order from them and then decided to compare Brownells for shipping. Although Brownells was a couple of dollars higher for the product, they were quite a bit cheaper than CTD. Then I ordered some other parts from a specialty manufacturer and they also had really high shipping costs and suddenly I have spent nearly half of my merchandise costs on shipping as well.

Sorry for being a grump Panzermk2. Obviously you make quality products which have a good reputation, and that is why I wanted to order from your company. I think I should have waited to type before I vented. My bad

For whatever reason(s) the shipping charges from EA to most destinations are definitely much higher than one would expect them to be. Lisa recently explained why this is so, and the big variable may be that EA is "out in the country" (our words) and there might be a hefty pickup fee from FedEx or UPS. Pure speculation.

Two boxes of ammo and one spring cost us ~$16 in shipping in October 2012.

Four boxes of ammo cost us ~$20 in shipping in September 2012.

Eight boxes of ammo cost us ~$17 in shipping in April 2012.

Ten boxes of ammo cost us ~$19 in shipping in January 2012.

It doesn't pay to order one or two boxes of ammo, or a spring, etc. Shipping is just too high. Even more odd is that 8 boxes of ammo cost us $17 in shipping while half that number (4) cost us _more_ at $20 in shipping. Huh??!? Heck we even got 10 boxes with a cheaper shipping charge vs. the 4 boxes!

It stinks when you can order a case (200 rounds) of 308 ammo from a distance further away than EA to your doorstep and pay half in shipping when the distance is greater and the weight is heavier.

All that said, no one is probably thinking that EA is making money on shipping. Sure, people/vendors do use this charge to make a few bucks more, but we've never got that impression from EA. Don't know why the rates are so high, or what can be done to get them in line and comparable to "the going rates". Maybe folks in locales close to one another should go in on group buys, have that one shipping charge and then divvy up the goods?

I took a look at FedEx's shipping rates on their website and EA's rates are pretty much identical to what the FedEx website lists. So, after looking like an arse and calling EA out without real reason, I rescind my previous statement about their shipping costs. I was completely in the wrong

Bax wrote:I took a look at FedEx's shipping rates on their website and EA's rates are pretty much identical to what the FedEx website lists. So, after looking like an arse and calling EA out without real reason, I rescind my previous statement about their shipping costs. I was completely in the wrong

It's ok, dude. You aren't the first or the last to complain about EA's shipping.

If you use the search, there are 384932874932 other threads on it. Each time, Lisa or Jay has had to explain themselves. Imagine if you were in their shoes. I did, and had to stop, because my wall started to cave in and my forehead started to bleed.

Sometimes, our emotions get the better of us, and we want to lash out. Actually, this is most of the time.

Before you do that, a circle of wise sages on the forum advised me to "calm down, dude, and wait a few before you respond".

Then I went and used the search function, and the combined elucidation made me realize it was ME being the idiot, not THEM.

I'm sure I'll screw up sometime in the near future. When I do, please make sure to remind me of my own words

:thumb:

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.
The shooter will always matter more than the gear ever will.
Stop relying on others to do the work for you.
Shoot more, worry less.

Shipping isnt something I would have thought about looking up on the forum. If it were anything else directly related to the cartridge or firearms, it would have been a no brainer for me.

Your advice about calming down and thinking before you type is funny because that is the exact same advice I give on the forum I mod for. Funny how easy it is to give advice, but forget to follow it yourself :facepalm: